Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday — Details emerged today on Google's broad social networking ambitions, first reported here in late September, with a follow up earlier this week. The new project, called OpenSocial (URL will go live on Thursday), goes well beyond what we've previously reported.

Google and Friends to Gang Up on Facebook — Google and some of the Web's leading social networks are teaming up to take on the new kid on the block — Facebook. — On Thursday, an alliance of companies led by Google plans to begin introducing a common set of standards to allow software developers …

OpenSocial, Google's Open Answer to Facebook — Google's (GOOG) much awaited answer to Facebook ecosystem is finally coming to light. The existence of this Google platform was first reported by TechCrunch and is going to become official tomorrow. — Google will announce …

Cookie tracking: How Facebook could be worth $100 billion? — When Facebook launches its "SocialAds" advertising product on November 6th, the technology will reportedly rely on cookies — unique identifiers sent to each user's computer from Facebook, and tracked by Facebook when they visit web pages.

SORRY PR PEOPLE: YOU'RE BLOCKED — I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff …

Blu-ray Mounts Event Offensive — The gloves are off. Backers of the high-definition Blu-ray Disc format are staging a two-day offensive in Hollywood this week, touting their triumphs and offering previews of upcoming releases such as Cars, Ratatouille,, the "Die Hard" movies …

Leopard with chinks in its armour — A second look at the Mac OS X Leopard firewall — Apple is using security in general and the new firewall in particular to promote Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X. However, initial functional testing has already uncovered cause for concern.

Intense Debate: A Very Sweet Comment Management Plug-in — Colorado based Intense Debate, the sophisticated blog comment system with the silly name, launched its public beta this morning. There are some definite kinks in the service still, but there's also quite a lot to take note of.

Google in talks with Verizon Wireless: sources — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is in active talks with number-two U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Pirate Bay Sees a Future Without BitTorrent — Why a new protocol? Well, the current BitTorrent protocol is developed and maintained by BitTorrent Inc. This company, founded by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, recently decided to close the source of some newer additions to the protocol.

Privacy Groups Propose Do-Not-Track List — Demands Would Hinder Marketers' Behavioral-Targeting Practices Online — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Privacy advocates are expected to propose the creation of a do-not-track list, a sort of internet version of the Do Not Call Registry, at a news conference tomorrow.

A Public Google Job Application — 27-years old Sebastian Lützig from Cologne, Germany, wants to work at Google, specifically in Google's security department. Instead of writing a normal job application, he decided to register tons of Google-related URLs - like adwordsgoogle.de …

PC stripper helps spam to spread — A virtual stripper is helping to defeat anti-spam security checks. — Spammers have created a Windows game which shows a woman in a state of undress when people correctly type in text shown in an accompanying image. — The scrambled text images come …

Microsoft shows off future features of Project — Microsoft showed off some features of the next version of Project, to the delight of the crowd gathered at the Microsoft Office Project Conference in Seattle. — The audience applauded a new timeline view that will become available.

Skype rolls the dice with Facebook games — Facebook is quickly becoming a way for established software publishers and services to gain new market share. Today Skype (for Windows and Mac) slipped an app launcher for 18 games into Facebook's app directory. I might mention that the games already exist as Skype Extras.